Some kids love to write; other prefer to use technology to express their creativity.
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Twins Max and Jett Farrell are firmly among the latter. And, as of last Thursday, their new-found passion is stop-motion animation, the painstaking process of bringing static objects to life on the screen one frame at a time.
Aged 14, the Year 8 students from St Paul's College Kempsey teamed up for the day-long Stop-Frame Animation workshop.
Jett admitted he and Max prefer 'working with our hands on physical stuff' to writing.
"We really wanted to learn how animation is done," Jett said.
"It's been cool learning how to use the video gear and computer program to create our own animation. I'd like to make it my hobby, but maybe use it to make some money on the side too."
In its third year, LitFest2444 is open to students from State and Independent schools. More than 500 from the Mid-North Coast and Hunter regions had the chance to ignite their individual creativity using written, spoken, visual and digital platforms.
The 2019 program's comprised 31 expert tutors staging 25 workshops on such diverse subjects as creative writing, filmmaking, podcasting, animation, and performance.
As well as inspiring youthful creativity, LitFest2444 is designed to build confidence and boost academic outcomes - particularly for students in Years 10, 11 and 12.
LitFest2444first-timers, Max and Jett were among 54 students from the Macleay who attended the festival in Port Macquarie last week.
Melissa Preston, an English and humanities teacher at St Pauls, said the LitFest2444 workshops boosted confidence, which is 'good for kids across all their subjects'.
"Some of our older students are here for the creative writing workshops," she said.
"But others like Jett and Max are here to learn technical skills in areas like animation, filmmaking, and podcasting."
Max and Jett are sold: "We'll be back next year."
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